NISD seeks input on new bonds

Northside Independent School District officials are asking for community input as they consider taking a bond proposal to voters sometime next year.

The district is encouraging parents to complete a survey on its website, www.nisd.net, by Friday. The answers will be provided to the district's 2014 Citizens'Bond Committee as it looks at new schools, buses, technology, renovations and classroom additions.

“Before we ask people to vote on it, we need to know how they feel about that,” district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. “What are their thoughts about another possible election and the kinds of things that a bond would support? We just need to gauge their level of interest.”

Parents need their child's student identification number to access the survey. The numbers can be found at the top of report cards and other school documents, according to the district's website.

District employees also were asked to complete a survey on the issue.

Voters in the district have been supportive in bond elections held every three years since 1995. In 2010, they approved around $535 million in building projects.

Gonzalez said voter approval has allowed the district to open 37 schools in the last 10 years. Three schools opened this year, two others are scheduled to open next year and three others are in the design phase. “People continue to want to live in and send their children to NISD,” he said.

The bond committee is in the process of being organized and could include up to 300 parents, senior citizens, business leaders, students, teachers and community representatives who will meet weekly to discuss a bond proposal, he said.

The committee's recommendation will be forwarded to the school board, which is expected to take action sometime in January, he said.